Trylinski Books

We had our February book club meeting on Wednesday, February 10, 2010 at the Library.

In January we started reading The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. As this is a very large book, we have decided to read this book over two months (January and February).

At our meeting everyone said they are enjoying the book. We all felt that the characters and story are very interesting.

At our March meeting on March 10, 2010 we will discuss this book some more.

Up coming selections:

• March 2010 - The Bishop Man by Linden MacIntyre
• April 2010 - 2nd Chance by James Patterson
• May 2010 - World without End by Ken Follett

We had our January book club meeting on Wednesday, January 13, 2010 at the Library.

Our December selection was This Year It Will Be Different by Maeve Binchy. A collection of 15  Christmas tales about love and family snarls in the season of comfort and joy, set in England, Ireland,  and Australia.

We discussed this book a bit and the consensus was that it was not what we expected for Christmas stories and  most of us did not enjoy this selection.

If you would like to read other books by Maeve Binchy, you can find more books by her on www.amazon.ca.

Our January book club selection is The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. As this is a very large book, we will be reading the first half of this book in January and the second half in February.

We had our December book club meeting on December 8th, 2009 at Kathy’s Place. We had a Christmas Supper (turkey and all the trimmings).

After we had supper, we discussed our November book club selection, Where the Heart is by Billie Letts. Everyone enjoyed this book and we all thought it was an easy read and a great story.

This is the story of Novalee Nation, who at age 17, and 7 months pregnant was dropped off at the Wal-mart in Sequoyah, Oklahoma with only $7.77 in change, by her boyfriend, Willy Jack Pickens.

Novalee meets 3 people her first day at the Wal-mart store, who later are there for her when she is in need and become her best friends. At the town library she meets the town librarian, Forney Hull, who introduces Novalee to the world of books and becomes a very important person in her and her child’s live.

In December we will be reading This Year Will be Different by Maeve Binchy.

On Wednesday, October 14th, we met at the Library to discuss our September book club selection,  A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines.

We had a lively discussion about this book and almost everyone agreed that this was a very moving and sad story.

If you have not read this book it is about Jefferson, a young black man who is convicted of murder and sentenced to death. His grandmother asks the school teacher, Grant to visit Jefferson at the prison to help him to become a man prior to his death. Grant struggles with this request, but he goes to the prison to visit Jefferson and over time he gets through to Jefferson.

In October we are reading 1st to Die by James Patterson.

Our next meeting will be at the Library on Wednesday, November 11th at 7:00 p.m.

In August our book club read The Heart of a Woman by Maya Angelou.

At our meeting on September 9, we had a great discussion about this book. Everyone seemed to enjoy it, but some found that it was a bit dry.

In this book the author writes about moving from California to New York with her son, Guy and entering a world of black artists and writers.  While in New York she takes part in the struggle of black Americans for their right place in the world. She talks about meeting Martin Luther King and Malcom X. And, she writes about her marriage to South Africa freedom fighter Vus Make and their time in Cairo.

If you are interested in reading other books by Maya Angelou you can find many at Amazon.ca.

In September we are reading A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines.

During June and July our book club tried something different. In June we each read whatever book we wanted and then at our meeting in July we exchanged the book we read with another member.

My selection for July was Mudbound by Hillary Jordan.  I really enjoyed this book. It is the story of Laura, a city girl, who marries Henry McAllan, who has always dreamed of owning his own cotton farm. In 1946 Henry McAllan moves the family to the cotton farm he purchased in the Mississippi Delta. Laura talks about the struggles she and the children have adjusting to their new life on the farm, as well as the friendship between Henry McAllan’s brother, Jamie and Ronsel, the son of a black sharecropper. Unfortunately this friendship brings trouble to both families. This is a story of forbidden love, betrayal and murder.

In August our book club selection is The Heart of a Woman by Maya Angelou.

In June our Book Club did something different. We each picked our own selection and I read Crime of Fashion by Jose’ Latour. I recently won this book in a contest at MysteryBooks.ca.

This is the first book by Jose’ Latour that I have read. In Crime of Fashion a rich woman who was a former model is kidnapped for Ten Million Dollars to be delivered in Euro Bonds. Latour gives a lot of detail about the characters in the story and it took till almost the end to find out who was the mastermind behind the kidnapping.

Other books by Jose’ Latour: Outcast, Havana World Series, Havana Best Friends, Comrades in Miami and more.

This evening at our book club meeting we exchanged books and we will read those in July. I will be reading Mudbound by Hillary Jordan.

In May our book club read The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. This is the first book in the Ladies’ Detective series, which takes place in Gaborone, Botswana, Africa.

We all enjoyed reading this book. The different cases that Precious Ramotswe (the owner of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency) had were very interesting. You also learn about life in Botswana, Africa and about the people who live there. The author also writes about Precious Ramotswe’s father and her life before she opened her Detective Agency.

There are currently 10 books in this series:

• The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency
• Tears of the Giraffe
• Morality for Beautiful Girls
• The Kalahari Typing School for Men
• The Full Cupboard of Life
• In the Company of Cheerful Ladies (also known as The Night-Time Dancer)
• Blue Shoes and Happiness
• The Good Husband of Zebra Drive
• The Miracle at Speedy Motors
• Tea Time for the Traditionally Built

In June our Book Club is doing something different. We are each going to read whatever book we like and then when we meet in July we will pass the book we read to another member of the book club.

I have chosen to read Crime of Fashion by Jose’ Latour. I recently won this book in a contest at MysteryBooks.ca.

In April our book club read Revenge of the Land by Maggie Siggins. When we had our book club meeting in May some of the members had not finished this book, including me, but we still had a great discussion about the book. We talked about the hardships of the early farmers and about the early days of Moose Jaw and area.

If you enjoy reading History, especially history about Saskatchewan and Canada, you will enjoy this book. Personally I found this book hard to read, but I did learn a lot about Saskatchewan and Canadian history.

In the first chapter the author writes about the murders that took place in August of 1987 at a farm outside of Pasqua, Saskatchewan, close to Moose Jaw. She then writes about the previous owners of this farm land, from the Pioneers in the 1800’s to the Eberle’s, who were murdered in 1987.

Maggie Siggins also wrote A Canadian Tragedy: JoAnn and Colin Thatcher, which was the basis of the acclaimed TV movie Love and Hate, Marie Anne: The Extraordinary Life Louis Riel’s Grandmother, Bitter Embrace, In Her Own Time, Riel: A Life of Revolution, and Bassett: John Bassett’s forty years in politics…….

You can also find a few of Maggie Siggins books on our website.

Our May book club selection is The No. 1 Ldies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith.  This is the 1st book in the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series

In March our book club read Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald. Unfortunately I was unable to attend the book club meeting yesterday, but I am sure they had a lively discussion about this book.

Fall on Your Knees takes the reader through the first half of the twentieth century in the company of the family of James and Materia Piper, of New Waterford, Nova Scotia, Canada. This is a novel of family secrets and survival.  James works hard to support his family, always finding ways of making money, some of which are illegal. But, at the same time he has a very bad temper and at times is very cruel to his young wife and his three daughters (Kathleen, Mercedes and Frances).  Prior to Mercedes death she does up a family tree, which reveals the secrets of the Piper Family for Lily, the daughter of Kathleen.

To learn more about the author and this book, be sure to read this Interview of Ann-Marie Macdonald by Oprah.

Have you read Fall on Your Knees? What did you think of the book?

In April, we are reading Revenge of the Land by Maggie Siggins. This is the story of a century of greed, tragedy and murder on a Saskatchewan Farm.